Overview

How does a writer approach a novel about a real person? In this new collection of interviews, authors such as Emma Donoghue, David Ebershoff, David Lodge, Colum McCann, Colm Tóibín, and Olga Tokarczuk sit down with literary scholars to discuss the relationship of history, truth, and fiction. Taken together, these conversations clarify how the biographical novel encourages cross-cultural dialogue, promotes new ways of thinking about history, politics, and social justice, and allows us to journey into the interior world of influential and remarkable people.

Full Product Details

Author:   Professor Michael Lackey (Distinguished McKnight University Professor of English, University of Minnesota, USA)
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Imprint:   Bloomsbury Academic USA
Dimensions:   Width: 14.60cm , Height: 2.20cm , Length: 22.00cm
Weight:   0.500kg
ISBN:  

9781501341465

ISBN 10:   1501341464
Pages:   296
Publication Date:   18 October 2018
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction: The Agency Aesthetics of Biofiction in the Age of Postmodern Confusion (Michael Lackey) 1. Positive Contamination in the Biographical Novel (Kevin Barry, interviewed by Stuart Kane) 2. Reflections on Truth, Veracity, Fictionalization, and Falsification (Laurent Binet, interviewed by Monica Latham) 3. Resisting the Dictatorship of the Present in the Biographical Novel (Javier Cercas, interviewed by Virginia Rademacher) 4. Sally Hemings' Staircase: On Biofiction's Afterlives (Barbara Chase-Riboud, interviewed by Melanie Masterton Sherazi) 5. Voicing the Nobodies in the Biographical Novel (Emma Donoghue, interviewed by Michael Lackey) 6. The Biographical Novel as Life Art (David Ebershoff, interviewed by Michael Lackey) 7. Fictions of Women (Hannah Kent, interviewed by Kelly Gardiner) 8. The Bionovel as a Hybrid Genre (David Lodge, interviewed by Bethany Layne) 9. Contested Realities in the Biographical Novel (Colum McCann, interviewed by Michael Lackey) 10. The Biographical Novelist as Cultural Diagnostician (Anchee Min, interviewed by Michael Lackey) 11. Speculative Subjectivities and the Biofictional Surge (Rosa Montero, interviewed by Virginia Rademacher) 12. Stitching Up the Auto/Biographical Seam (Stephanus Muller, interviewed by Willemein Froneman) 13. Complex Psychologies in the Biographical Novel (Sabina Murray, interviewed by Michael Lackey) 14. The Slant Truth of the Biographical Novel (Nuala O'Connor, interviewed by Julie A. Eckerle) 15. Postmodernism and the Biographical Novel (Susan Sellers, interviewed by Bethany Layne) 16. The Anchored Imagination of the Biographical Novel (Colm Toibin, interviewed by Bethany Layne) 17. I Believe in the Novel (Olga Tokarczuk, interviewed by Robert Kusek and Wojciech Szymanski) 19. Biographical Fiction and the Creation of Possible Lives (Chika Unigwe, interviewed by Michael Lackey) Contributors Further Reading Index

Reviews

Michael Lackey has distinguished himself as a leading scholar of contemporary literature. In his preface to this provocative collection of interviews, he identifies the biographical novel as a 'countervailing aesthetic form' that is 'strategically different from and even in conflict with the historical novel.' The conversations gathered here express the varied processes these brilliant writers have devised in order to give shape to their unique creative visions. The questions from interviewers are stimulating, the answers are fascinating, and the whole book brings new insights and energies to the study of biographical fiction. * Joanna Scott, Roswell Smith Burrows Professor of English, University of Rochester, USA, and author of Careers for Women (2017) * Michael Lackey is a pioneer in this area, a brilliant and inventive critic who has lifted the biographical novel to its proper place in the literary firmament. His conversations with key novelists here - an eclectic and international collection - add immensely to his groundbreaking work. These conversations are intelligent, arresting, and informative. This is a major contribution to the field. * Jay Parini, author of The Last Station (1990) and Benjamin's Crossing (1996) *

Author Information

Michael Lackey is Distinguished McKnight University Professor of English at the University of Minnesota, Morris, USA. He is the author or editor of eight books, including African American Atheists and Political Liberation: A Study of the Socio-Cultural Dynamics of Faith, which was named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year in 2008, and Truthful Fictions: Conversations with American Biographical Novelists (Bloomsbury, 2014).

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